Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

So, there was this guy on a Yahoo! Aikido group who was doing a a roll-a-thon to benefit a sick friend of his. I thought this was a great idea. Then it occured to me that one of the biggest events in Rio Vista every year is the Relay for Life, a benefit for the American Cancer Society. Hard on the heals of that I remembered thinking that I needed to do some kind of charity event at the dojo. It's not important why, this is just something I really believe in.

So, we had a roll-a-thon this weekend. My plan is to have one every year. Or even twice a year. It was fairly successful, I thought.

Seven kids showed up to roll.

My plan was to have them roll for a total of 30 minutes each in ten minute shifts. That way they'd have ten minutes to catch their breath and get over any dizziness. I estimated that each one would be able to do between 20-50 rolls over that thirty minutes.

Silly me.

They averaged 175 rolls in the first ten minutes. Yes, they slowed down for the second ten minutes and not one of them went for the third ten minutes. One white belt who could only manage one session and has never done much at all physical before Aikido still managed a total of 98 rolls in ten minutes.

Two of these kids exceeded 400 rolls with one at 440, the other (my son!) at 428. These two had pledges of $.50 per roll from various people. It's a dime next time, guaranteed.

Am I proud of these kids? Absolutely! But I was in shock for most of the rest of Saturday.